After getting tired of spending turn after turn in combat running into melee i decided to make a specialised ranged party. But after some early difficulties (arnika road, i like to try and fight my way through ;) ) i thought i'd make one with enough natural melee capability to hold its own. So:

Fighter: not sure on race, he'll be up front taking the flak, but using the biggest bow i can find, along with dual maces, and raising dex/sen more prominently and his ranged skills

Mook ranger: self explanatory ;) , bow and one of those nice swords

Fairy ninja: dual throwing and CoC, probably dualing that with something, possibly rod of sprites or similar, depending what i find

Hobbit bard: raising speed to get soul shield up early if necessary, going bow and maybe fang and shield for melee. Probably going on a side/back to focus on ranged and instruments, melee only if engaged (instrumesnt make her vulnerable with lost stamina)

Hobbit gadgeteer: back/middle focusing on omnigun and gadgets, my lock and trap, mythology and artifact person due to the few skills she needs. Raising sen and dex then speed and str.

Elf bishop: speed caster, mainly buffing and restoration.

ill be training all three alchemcy skills in the arnika bank to avoid excessive investment, due to having to raise melee a little as well as pumping ranged. Using spells to identify as much as possible. No autoswitch weapons on FN, ill uncurse after each fight and switch only when all monsters in melee. Engaging from range wherever possible, melee as a last resort.

Any comments/suggestions?

edited for spelling and stuff

[ 03-16-2004, 01:41 PM: Message edited by: GMK ]

CoC is cursed no? so no ranged possibility if you use it... (except if you want to throw bombs/use artifacts).

Oh, I see you plan to uncurse before each fight. I don't know - if the plan was to avoid the running and moving to get into close combat range, I'm not sure I'd want to uncurse before each combat, equip during combat, and then have to move anyway to use the CoC.

Maybe you really want the FN with the CoC, but if you've played it before, why not try a hobbit or other race ninja - there are many good options with the ninja for close combat - and the thrown criticals are pretty fun I think, even from close range. Plus, with your party, you'll kick planty of ass without the CoC.

[ 03-16-2004, 02:15 PM: Message edited by: petertmorgan ]

im planning to use CoC as a backup weapon, wasteful i know but will kick ass if they do decide to get up close and personal. Im not sure how i would work out, i envisage throwing for a bit then once everything has closed up to melee distance manual changing weapons to help finish them off. But maybe id be better dumping CoC and going with a stronger race. Hobbits do look good to be fair.

Make sure you hire out a couple mules to tote around all the ammo you plan on using.

Yah, what Babar said: I'd go for at least one more than the Gad in Modern (start with a Musket as soon as you get one--or Rattus' Zip Gun) and then cheese-reload Jan-Ette until you get a Phaser. (hasn't taken me more than a dozen tries, and it's the fastest reload-to-get-something in the game). There's at least one more person who won't need ammo...and the Ranger's instawhack and the Fighter's KO both work with a Phaser.

I think, ammo isn't that problem. I once played a pure fighter party (no mages, two bards, one Gadgy, a rogue and two fighters ). All had ranged weapons( two modern, one sling , two bows and one 3-X-Bow).

There are many shops that sell ammunition and you have some portals later so IMO it's easy to restock. ( my party always had to run ). And with different kinds of ranged weapon, you don't lose too much ammo in a fight.

Your party is a strong one, so another point is: they can carry much.

[img]graemlins/monster5.gif[/img]

[ 03-17-2004, 12:59 AM: Message edited by: Loudhy ]

IMO, ranged is severly underrated by many players. My favourite stategy is to bombard the meanies with disabling/damage spells until I've had enough and simply pick 'em off with ranged weapons when they're weak and feeble. If I do it right, I don't waste too much ammo and I don't deplete my mana reserves either, but best of all, the meanies are all dead before they can do anything serious to my hit points.

Sometimes, melee is pretty much inevitable, especially against bosses, so it pays to have 1 or 2 guys that can hold their own toe to toe. Melee parties are good at killing a few meanies really quickly, but I've found that a ranged/magic party is faster when I'm facing several meanies at once.

BTW I think Rangers are simply killing machines. Ranged criticals occur, on average, about twice a battle (for me anyway). No other profession I have played gets more crits than that except maybe a faerie ninja.

I always play with a ranger, for the scouting mainly but i normally go melee/magic and he's the only ranged buy that can compete for a slot (other than gadgie half the time). Thanks for the hints, i'm making my bard a modern weapon specialist to free up the strength slot so she can go for speed (soul shield) which not everyone else needs. Also switching to a hobbit ninja and going pure ranged.

Ill keep you informed of anything unforseen that comes up, provided anyone cares [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Have you thought about going Sammie instead of Fighter? Give the Sammie Bloodlust and then use magic for ranged attack on him. With that, you get good Sword skill, Critical, Beserk (due to Bloodlust), and Magic in one package.

Never really like samurais. THe wizardry spells always seem quite weak when you get them 4 levels late, as there are quite a lot of direct damage spells, and after that a samurai is just a weak fighter. It seems a bit much to try and raise sword, dual (or shield), CC, CS, wizardry and the realm skills i need (i'd probably only go 3/4 though) but that doesnt conpare favorably with fighter mace/dual, CC, RC and bow. Spells like paralyse could be useful but my bard gets a freeze all instrument and gadgie can use duct tape relatively early on single big meanies. Plus the fighter has those extra hp i will need to hold off tough meleer's as im not raising vit so i can focus on dex/sen/spd/str. Anyway i started now [img]tongue.gif[/img]

Got to the end of lower monastery, only lost 3 hp and that was aginst gregor. Its helped that i can kill monsters from a range and they are mainly melee. Im not looking formwards to juggernaughts etc. on A-T road though...